Teaching Action Researchers

Teaching action research is not teaching students about action research but facilitating their learning of a complex research practice that integrates conceptual knowledge with lived experience. Unlike most traditional educational experiences, this involves co-generation of knowledge on the part of the learner through being engaged with other students, all of whom are learning how to be action researchers through active inquiry. Specific pedagogical designs vary based on the institutional setting in which action research is taught, and for what purpose. However, most seek in one way or another to reflect the action research process itself in how it is being taught. In other words, teaching action research is a practice of involving the learner in the cognitive processing of conceptual information while engaged in praxis.

Common to all action research initiatives are the goals of empowering the researchers to solve pertinent problems that are confronting them while producing new practical knowledge. The intended outcomes of action research vary across a spectrum, from the empowerment or emancipation of community members through taking action on problems within their social setting, to contributing scientific knowledge relevant to a broader academic or social discourse. Achieving these outcomes requires initiating and taking collaborative actions, fostering critical reflection on the process and the outcomes of having taken those actions, along with rigorous data analysis, synthesis and writing reports about the knowledge generated.

Conducting action research requires a researcher to have a complex mix of competencies in social or group dynamics (to organize the process in a collaborative, democratic way), personal and collective reflective learning practices (to enhance reflexive awareness of how the actors are intervening in the setting and are thus embedded in the study itself) and research methods (for contributing robust conclusions to the relevant scientific/social discourse). Conducting action research involves applying this mix of capabilities in real social environments where action produces unexpected as well as intended consequences. Effectively navigating dynamic social settings entails blending tacit intuitive knowing drawn from lived experience and formal conceptual knowledge into practical application. Practising action research requires being able to manifest this blending in the moment, engaging in what Donald Schön describes as reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action with others. Teaching action researchers how to manifest this complex skill set involves creating pedagogical designs that mirror the practice itself. In short, learning how to do action research and, by extension, teaching it involve engaging in a pedagogy involving praxis—reflection and taking action in the world to change it while obtaining new insight and understanding from doing so.

In addition to learning the above skills, students need competencies in data gathering and analysis. Data-gathering competencies include interviews, field observation methods, working with archival data, focus groups, constructing and conducting surveys, as well as inferential statistics. Coding data, thematic analysis and triangulation are critical analysis capabilities. Learning to effectively perform these research skills also requires understanding how to select the right mix of methods for the project at hand, including sequencing them appropriately. There is no pre-given formula for making these decisions. As Morten Levin has stated, the research question and project objectives determine the methods to be applied.

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